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The Spanish Grand Prix brought back some not-so-fond memories of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton's contact at the 2017 Azerbaijan GP, with Max Verstappen ramming into George Russell mid-way through the race. The Dutchman was subsequently hit with a 10-second time penalty, which former F1 champion Nico Rosberg claimed was very lenient of stewards to let the Red Bull driver off with such a minimal penalty.
Verstappen and Russell's rivalry started to sour at the 2023 Azerbaijan Sprint race, where the two F1 drivers collided. However, the rivalry dialled down soon, but it was just waiting to be reignited.
This happened again at the qualifying for the 2024 Qatar GP, where the reigning world champion impeded Russell, even though the latter was not on a flying lap. This had infuriated the Dutchman, with their relationship going south.
Though such an altercation had not taken place in 2025, the clock was ticking on the two coming together. Fans did not have to wait for long as the two clashed together at the Spanish Grand Prix, as Max Verstappen had a torrid safety car restart and was dive-bombed by the Mercedes driver in the latter half of the race.
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Frustrated by the Brit's action and his team's call to let George Russell through, the 27-year-old allowed the Mercedes to inch ahead of him and then collided with him intentionally. This sparked a massive debate and prompted the stewards to immediately launch a probe into the matter.
The stewards then penalized Max Verstappen with a 10-second penalty, which led Nico Rosberg to assert how the repercussion of the Dutchman's action was handled too lightly. He said during commentating for Sky Sports F1:
"That's a very lenient one from that point of view... That's very lenient."
On the other hand, witnessing the clash between Verstappen and Russell, the 2016 F1 champion had called for a black flag multiple times while commentating to disqualify the Red Bull driver from the race. He had urged such a harsh decision to highlight the severity of his actions.
Nico Rosberg is aware of Max Verstappen's tactics behind the wheel of a racecar
Though Nico Rosberg retired after winning the 2016 Drivers' championship, he had raced the Dutchman multiple times in his title-winning year to know about the intricacies of racing Verstappen. Talking about how the grid knows about the four-time champion's tactics, the former Mercedes driver had talked about it in detail during qualifying for the Spanish GP.
Rosberg shared how the McLaren drivers have experienced the racing of Max Verstappen and said on the Sky Sports F1 panel during qualifying:
"No, of course, you want to be on pole, but at the same time you have Max Verstappen right behind you. That's always so uncomfortable to have Verstappen behind you. Always, and especially both McLaren drivers by now, are traumatised by Max Verstappen.
Meanwhile, McLaren brought home a 1-2 lead by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, whereas Verstappen finished 10th after his 10-second penalty was accounted for.
